Introduction

Piano Professors

New Orleans has a long, unbroken tradition of “Piano Professors” that stretched back to the ragtime era with Tony Jackson and his disciple Jelly Roll Morton, peaked in the R&B era with Fats Domino and Professor Longhair, and continues today with pianists including Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, and John Cleary. In a musical city associated most with horns and drums, the piano is a unique instrument. Because it covers the full musical range on its 88 keys, one musician can entertain an audience, as Jelly Roll did in the famed bordellos of Storyville at the turn of the 20th century.